Suit Coats, Black Lipstick, and Coffee
by liz012014
Summary: Crossover with Dark Angel. Just a little story about how such a connection could occur...The redone version.
1. Chapter 1

This is an updated version of a story that I previously posted in preparation for adding additional chapters in the future.

Suit Coats, Black Lipstick, and Coffee

Logan stared out the window at the rain for a long time. It came down in sheets and muted the sparse city lights that were visible from his penthouse apartment. He stared into the pouring rain and he remembered what life had been like before. There was a time before the pulse when he lived on the other side of the country on a completely different coast. A time before wheelchairs and glasses and the frustration of not being able to move the way his brain told his body it should. Before the pulse and before the accident too. On nights like tonight, he could remember the things he'd left behind.

He had a different name then and a family, if not by blood than certainly by affection. He'd been Anthony Dinozzo, Special Agent for NCIS. He'd had two sisters, a Goth forensics specialist and a former secret service agent, and he'd had a brother who was also an MIT grad and computer geek. He'd had a grandfather who was a coroner and told the most incredible stories about everything and nothing. Later, after one of his sisters was shot dead, he made a friend who kicked ass and asked questions eventually, if she felt like it. And then there was Gibbs. He wasn't his brother or his father but he was family just the same. Gibbs never needed a label. He just was.

Logan had left the family he'd chosen on another coast. He'd let them believe that he was dead. After the pulse hit, he'd only wanted to get back to them. He needed so desperately to help them, to make sure they were safe. There hadn't been a way to let them know that he was all right. After the accident and after the world started to reorganize itself, he'd had the opportunity to let them know that he was alive. He didn't. He told himself that it was because they had more important things to worry about than him, terrorists and criminals and survival in a world turned upside down by violence. He'd let them believe he was as lost to them as they were to him. He was a burden now. Someone to be taken care of by others. After that, it seemed completely impossible to even contemplate a life and family he'd left so far away in a world where the ability to travel across the country in hours had been taken for granted and then taken away in a moment.

The accident changed his world just as completely as the pulse changed everyone else's. He was alone again. Just as he was before he'd become a part of NCIS. He didn't choose to be that way but it was his reality and he'd learned to live with it. Maybe, eventually, he'd even begin to believe it.

There were many things that Logan liked about the life that he had made for himself. He had a new reputation. He had success and his mission and his fledgling relationship with Max. He was self-sufficient and helping people again and he'd found a bit of the peace he thought he'd lost for good. He'd learned he was capable of things that he'd never dreamed he'd be able to do, things McGee would never believe he could do. And he could smile just a little now when he thought about his family. They'd be proud after they got over being angry. But when it was dark outside and the rain muted the city's lights, he still stared into the pouring rain and thought of suit coats, black lipstick, and coffee.


	2. Chapter 2

Ten months after the pulse, Gibbs decided that the situation in Washington D.C. and at the Navy Yard in particular was as far under control as it was likely to get in the near future. Finally, he could begin to think about other things again, his team's stress level, Abby's caffeine withdrawal, the rapidly declining health of Ducky's mother, and his missing agent. The lack of contact with Dinozzo was especially strong in his mind and Gibbs began to consider what he could do to find Tony Dinozzo. News from the west coast was spotty and months old by the time it reached Washington and there was no indication that Dinozzo was anywhere near another NCIS branch.

Two weeks later, Gibbs was digging through the mess of tools and camping supplies in his basement when footsteps sounded on the floor above him. He paused long enough to identify the intruder before continuing with his packing. "You are leaving, yes?" Ziva lowered herself to sit on the basement stairs.

"Yes."

"Where?"

Gibbs moved across the room to go through an open cardboard box that was sitting next to the worktable.

"Gibbs, are you going to find Tony?"

"Yeah." He pulled a box of batteries and dropped them into his bag.

"We're coming with you."

Gibbs turned to look at her. "No."

"Yes, Gibbs. He is our friend as well." She stood up and descended the final few steps to face him. "We will follow you on our own if we must."

Gibbs paused with a flashlight in his hand. "Who's we?"

"Myself, McGee, and Abby."

The flashlight went in the bag. "Abby's staying here."

"She will not." Ziva crossed her arms.

"Yes, she will." He turned to dig through another box. "She will if I tell her to."

"Gibbs?" Abby's voice came from the top of the stairs. "I need to be part of this. Tony's one of the best friends I've ever had. I need to help find him."

Gibbs sighed and moved close enough to the staircase to see Abby where she stood in the doorway. "Abbs, you're not trained for this. It'll take weeks to get from here to northern California and it's not just a simple matter of hopping in the car and going for a road trip anymore. It's going to be dangerous. People out there are desperate and I don't want to watch you get hurt."

Abby smiled. "I know but I still need to go with you. I'll be as safe traveling with you as I would be here on my own. No where's safe anymore."

Gibbs frowned. "Abby—"

"Gibbs, please, like Ziva said, we're going even if we have to follow you." She crossed her arms glared. "We have to be there, Gibbs."

Abby had always been stubborn at the worst possible times. Gibbs knew when he was outmaneuvered. At least if they were with him he stood a chance of protecting them. "I'm leaving at first light. Be here before then or you're on your own."

Abby squealed and thumped down the stairs to throw her arms around him. "You won't regret it, Bossman. We'll find Tony and bring him home. You'll see."

Gibbs returned the hug for a long moment before pulling back. "You better get home and pack."

Abby nodded and thumped back up the steps as fast as her combat boots could carry her.

"Ziva?"

"Yes, Gibbs?"

"Help her pack. Common sense in clothing is not her best thing."

Ziva nodded and turned to follow Abby up the stairs. "Abby is right. We will find him."

Gibbs leaned back on the worktable and stared at his boat. He sighed.

The four agents climbed into Gibb's car at 4:30 in the morning and began their long drive. Ziva stared silently through the windshield. McGee and Abby were curled together on the backseat. Abby had been asleep before they'd even gotten out of the greater D.C. area.

They drove until they only had a quarter tank of gas left before Gibbs started looking for somewhere that not only had gas but the electricity to power their pumps. It wasn't as difficult as he'd been afraid it would be. The country was recovering, little by little.

Gibbs pumped gas and paid while the others went in to the restroom. They were back on the road inside of fifteen minutes.

He felt a sense of urgency now that had been missing when he'd been trapped in Washington putting the pieces back together. His gut told him that Tony was in trouble and they were still over 2000 miles away from being able to help. He hated it.

"Gibbs?" Ziva was watching him from her place in the passenger seat. "Are you all right?"

He nodded and focused back on the road. They still had much too far to go.


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks for all the great reviews! And of course, I do not own NCIS or much in the way of anything else.

Sorry this part took so long. Hopefully, life will cooperate and the next part won't take so long.

Four Days After the Pulse…

Tony opened his eyes to a dimly lit room. He was lying in a comfortable bed. An oil lamp barely illuminated all four walls of the room from its place on the night table nearby.

He hurt. Everything ached, especially his right arm, which he noted had been splinted, and his back burned with dull pain. There was an IV feeding into his left arm from a stand next to the night table.

Tony remembered driving. Something had hit him. He hadn't seen it. He hadn't seen anything.

The door to the dimly lit room opened and a man stepped in. "You're awake." He was a short man, no taller than 5'5'' or 5'6'', in his late 60s. His hair was white and receding. The man's eyes were much younger than the rest of him. His brown eyes twinkled kindly from behind metal-framed glasses. "How are you feeling?"

Tony swallowed and almost started coughing. "Water, please?"

The man smiled. "Of course." He moved across the room to the night table and poured a glass of water from the pitcher that was sitting there. He helped Tony sit up and hold the glass as he took small sips.

"Thank you."

The man placed the glass back on the night table and sat down in a chair by the wall. "My name is Michael Cale. You're in my home."

"Why?"

"Why are you here?" Michael asked.

"Yeah."

"Did you notice the blackout before the accident?"

Tony shook his head.

"Its widespread at least throughout the city and more than just the electricity was effected. I suspect it was some kind of electromagnetic pulse." Michael paused. "The phones don't work, neither do the cars."

"So…no ambulances or hospitals."

Michael nodded. "The nearest hospital is 8 miles from here and they probably wouldn't have electricity even if we could get you there."

Tony nodded slowly. "How long have I been out?"

"Four days."

Tony blinked rapidly. "Wow. How did you find me?"

"My friend, Will, and I were at a coffee house down the street when the lights went out. We were walking back to the house and saw the wrecked cars. The other driver had run straight into the driver's side door of your car. She was dead and you were unconscious. Will's a nurse. He went to the house and got a backboard. We carried you back to my house and did the best we could for you. You didn't appear to be outwardly injured apart from your arm and head." Michael leaned forward. "Will didn't think you had any internal bleeding but without better equipment… He said if you made it through the next day that your chances of surviving would be pretty good." He paused and relaxed in the chair again. "That's pretty much the whole story."

"Thank you for helping me." Tony rubbed a hand through his already disheveled hair. "I'm assuming that since you haven't asked, that you found out my name?"

Michael chuckled. "Yeah. I kind of poked through your wallet when you wouldn't wake up."

"Figured," Tony responded with a small smile.

Michael's face was serious again when he asked, "Are you in much pain?"

Tony sighed. "A little. Its not too bad." He shifted slightly trying to get more comfortable, paused, then shifted a bit more. "Oh, God," he whispered.

Michael was at his side in seconds. "What? What's wrong?"

Tony's eyes were wide. "I can't move my legs."


End file.
